Last night, after turning off the lights, I listened to “1587, A Year of No Significance” and probably fell asleep within a few minutes. This morning, I woke up in the air-conditioned room with a bit of nasal discomfort.

In the morning, my younger brother came home, then later rode his bike to a remote factory area. A classmate invited him to set up a stall selling cold dishes, mainly catering to workers getting off their midday shift there. He returned at noon, his hands tanned dark red, and started complaining to me. At the factory gate, most stalls sell ready-to-eat meals—rice dishes, stir-fried noodles, etc. The busiest spot is already an open-air restaurant, with large sun umbrellas and 5-6 small tables set up. There are various meat and vegetable stir-fries, self-serve, and the average price per person is only 12 yuan. My brother considered the conditions with his classmate—even if there’s foot traffic, there wouldn’t be much profit if they did it themselves.

After dinner, we planned to visit another night market 4 kilometers away. As we approached, we heard fruit vendors shouting their wares. Looking around, we walked inside to the central open square outside the mall, where most vendors were gathered, with a few small tables scattered around. We strolled around, checked the price lists and main offerings—mostly barbecue and stir-fried noodles. There were three lemon tea stalls, mango drinks for 14 yuan, and milk tea for 8-9 yuan. A dessert stall sold sweet soups for 6-7 yuan, and another ice jelly stall charged 8 yuan. Later, we bought some rice for porridge in the mall, and it was already 8 o’clock. At the night market’s small tables, most were young parents with five- or six-year-old children eating barbecue, usually after playing in the indoor amusement park downstairs. The supermarket entrance was also full of parents watching their kids play. There were about 20 vendors at the night market, but only 1-2 people in front of each stall on average—many stalls, few customers.

On the way back, we visited another newly planned night market, which also had many stalls but few people. Fewer than 10 vendors, giving a sense of warmth, but prices were similar to the previous place.

There were many barbecue stalls, mainly because of one advantage: you can smell the aroma from afar. This is the night market’s biggest marketing strategy.

This article was originally written in Chinese and translated into English by AI. Please forgive any errors in expression.